


Security

by TFLatte



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, Stolen Century, TAZ Secret Santa 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 11:05:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17140634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TFLatte/pseuds/TFLatte
Summary: Lup and Lucretia go hunting for the Light. Lucretia has an encounter that shakes her.





	Security

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this for the exchange, and I'm very relieved to be posting it at last! And by "at last" I mean "less than 24 hours after I finished it." I'm not very good at getting things done on time. But I got there!

The plane they’d landed on this time was _full_ of strange spooky forests. Lucretia picked her way over the ground, glad for her sturdy boots every time she kicked a root or a rock.  Without them her feet would probably be a mass of bruises. She kept an eye on Lup up ahead of her, a flame in her hand lighting their path. Lucretia appreciated that - she hadn’t even had to ask. As if sensing Lucretia’s gaze on her, Lup glanced over her shoulder and grinned at her.

“You doing okay back there, Lucy?”

“I’m fine.” Lucretia picked up her pace a little. “Don’t worry about me.”

Lup dropped back to walk closer to her anyway. “What do you think is in here, anyway? My money’s on owlbears.”

“We haven’t seen anything like an owlbear since we left home - which is weird, but that’s not important. I’m not sure what we’ll see here. All I could find out is that people come in here for guidance sometimes, and people say it tests them first.”

Lup sighed theatrically. “I thought when we got picked for the crew we were done with tests.”

“And I didn’t study. It’s my every nightmare come true.”

Lup laughed and patted her shoulder, letting her hand rest on it. “Don’t worry. I’m great at cheating, I’ll let you copy off of me.” Something crunched loudly up ahead, and Lup looked up. “You hear that?”

“I did.” Lucretia gripped her journal a little tighter for comfort and leaned slightly into Lup’s hand. “Any guesses what it is?”

“Maybe the Light grew legs and came to us for once.”

“That’d be a nice change, but unlikely.”

“Uh-huh.” Lup lifted her wand. “Wait here, okay? I’m going to check it out.”

“On your own? If it’s dangerous-”

“Lucy. C’mon. It’s me.” Lup gave her a grin that showed every tooth, and despite herself Lucretia’s heart skipped a beat. “I’m more dangerous than anything this plane can throw at us.”

“...If you’re sure.” Lucretia couldn’t say she _wanted_ to investigate the creepy noise one bit, and Lup _was_ the evocation specialist. Barring Magnus, she was probably the best suited out of all of them to check it out.

“I’m always sure. Be right back.” Lup gave her shoulder a squeeze, then turned and headed forward, wand already glowing with a readied spell. Lucretia went quiet and waited, listening. The woods had grown silent, and even Lup’s footsteps seemed to be swallowed up, fading away to nothing.

Part of Lucretia wanted to try and sketch something as she waited, but she worried about distracting herself. Instead, she opened the journal in her hand and jotted down a few notes, not even looking at the page as she wrote. The soft scratch of the pen on paper seemed so loud, and she wrote that down too.

A flicker of movement caught her eye, and she looked towards it, grip on her pen tightening. For a moment, there was nothing, and then - a flash of red. Bright red, a shade she had burned into her heart after nearly twenty years. Someone was moving around in an IPRE uniform.

Lucretia took a few steps forward, then paused and glanced after Lup. She dug into her pocket for a moment, feeling around, until she produced a small pocketknife Magnus had gotten her a couple cycles back and insisted she keep with her. Lup was more than smart enough to figure it out, so she just carved a small arrow into a tree and followed where she’d seen the movement, continuing to make marks she could follow back.

The next time it came, she was close enough to make out a form. “Merle?” she called. “What are you doing here?” He was supposed to be with Davenport, finding out what they could from the locals. But he didn’t respond, and by the time she caught up to where she’d seen him, he was gone.

The next time, she spotted Barry, even caught a glimpse of his glasses as he looked down to inspect something. She dashed through the trees towards him, but this time she only had to pass behind a tree for him to disappear, despite her calling out. Her nerves were starting to make themselves known - this wasn’t normal, and she didn’t like it. Maybe it was time she turned around and stopped making so much noise.

She was following the arrows back when a third figure got her attention, just off her path. Tensing instinctively, she realized it was Lup again and relaxed a little. “Lup? Did you come looking for me? Sorry, I could’ve sworn I saw-”

“It doesn’t matter.” Lup turned away from the arrow she’d been looking at and fixed Lucretia with a stare that made her shift uncomfortably, confused.

“I - okay? I’m sorry if I worried you, I was only going to be a minute, and I thought-”

“You always do, don’t you?” Something about her tone set warning bells ringing in Lucretia’s head. Her stare didn’t waver.

“...Lup? Is something wrong?”

Lup snorted. “Nothing that hasn’t always been wrong, no.” Lucretia swallowed nervously. This wasn’t like her.

“Are you okay? What did you find?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” Lup stalked forward, brushing past Lucretia with her ears pinned back. Lucretia scurried after her.  
“Lup, wait up - what _is_ it? I don’t understand-”

“Really? You don’t?” Lup rounded on her. “Then why don’t I _explain_ it to you, _Lucy_.” Lucretia came to a dead stop with Lup’s finger in her face, eyes wide. Lup glared, and Lucretia took an instinctive step back. She’d _never_ seen Lup like this, not in any of their cycles.

“I-”

“That’s just it, isn’t it? _You_.” Lup slashed a hand through the air. “It’s _always_ you. That’s how it happens. If you’re not hiding on the ship, you’re hiding behind the rest of us. Protect Lucretia, she doesn’t fight. She doesn’t study, or heal, or lead. She just cowers behind you and _writes things down_.” She sneered, and a dagger to the heart would’ve hurt less.

“Lup, where is this coming from? I thought-” _I thought you liked looking out for me_ stuck in her throat.

“What do you _do_ , Lucretia?” Lup shot back. “What exactly is your job? Keeping records? We already have our research notes. Who is your ‘chronicle’ even for? What’s the _point_?”

“I-it’s for historical-”

“The only thing standing between us and the Hunger eating us all alive is the Starblaster, and your contribution to keeping that running is... _drawing_. No, not even a contribution, because it wouldn’t _matter_ if you stopped doing it.” Lup took a step forward, driving Lucretia back a step. “You don’t _provide_ anything we couldn’t do better without. We’d be better off without _you_.”

Lucretia choked on her words, tears running down her face as she stared back at Lup, her face twisted with something she couldn’t place at first. Then her mind whispered the answer - _hate_.

But, at the same time, it struck her - Lup’s eyes were strange. She hadn’t noticed at first, but Lucretia knew Lup’s face almost better than her own. They stared almost blankly out of the familiar face, distorted as it was with such foreign emotion. Lucretia stared back, and then she plunged her hand into her pocket to clutch the crystal there tight and cast. Illusion magic shimmered over every inch of Lup.  
“You - you’re not her,” she forced out. “You’re not _real_ -”

“Maybe not,” the illusion stepped forward. “But you didn’t tell me I’m wrong.”

Lucretia swallowed hard, trembling, about to run, and then-

“Luc?”

Both she and the illusion looked towards the voice. Lup pushed through the brush, and out of the corner of her eye Lucretia saw the illusion vanish. Lup glanced towards it, frowning as she looked around, then back at Lucretia. Her eyes widened.

“Lucy! You’re crying, come here-“Lup pulled Lucretia into her arms. “What _happened_? What was that? Are you hurt, fuck, I’m sorry-”

“No, no, I’m fine - I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to freak you out, I should’ve-”

“Don’t apologize, _I’m_ sorry, I shouldn’t have left you on your own, I thought you’d be safer but it was stupid. Are you _sure_ you’re okay?” She squeezed Lucretia’s shoulder with one hand.

Lup would never say those things, and Lucretia knew it - but that didn’t mean she didn’t _feel_ them. A stab of guilt made her pull away and school her face to something more normal, swiping away her tears. “I’m okay, honestly. Don’t worry about it. Did you find anything?”

Lup frowned, but shook her head. “Nothing interesting. Just some footprints from the treebeasts.”

“They’re giant squirrels, Lup,” Lucretia managed, smiling. “We all know that.”

“They’re _extraplanar_ giant squirrels, Lucy. They need to have a cool name.” Lup gave her one more squeeze before letting go. “Ready to get going?”

“I’m ready.” Lucretia straightened up, lifting her chin. Lup nodded, then linked arms with her and led the way back, following Lucretia’s arrows.

They delved deeper into the forest as the light dimmed, and finally Lucretia stopped, shaking her head.

“We’re not getting anywhere in this light. We should stop for the night.”

“You think? It’s not _that_ dark.” Lup glanced back, eyes gleaming in the darkness.

Lucretia paused, looking at her and raising an eyebrow, then laughed. “Why do you always forget I don’t have darkvision?”

“Oh, I don’t forget. It’s just a great excuse to get you to hold my hand.” Lup flashed her a playful grin. Lucretia felt her cheeks heat up. She was never going to get used to that. How did you ask someone ‘hey, are you flirting for real because I would definitely be down if you are’? “Well, if we’re stopping for the night, can you whip up a safety dome for us?”

“Oh, right, yes. Give me a few minutes, I’d rather save the spell slot, just in case.” Illusions shouldn’t be able to get through the dome, but who knew how magic worked on other planes? It might work on some magical frequency that let it pass through.

“In case?” Lup eyed her.

“Well, if we have to fight any _treebeasts_ you’ll be happy I did.” Lup snickered, and Lucretia started casting before she could ask any more questions. Ten minutes later, a midnight blue dome formed over the pair of them, and then turned transparent. Lucretia stepped out to check that it was secure and camouflaged, then came back inside to Lup already setting up the campfire. “We’re good,” she reported, pulling out her sleeping bag to lay it out and sit on it.

“We knew that already, but what about the dome?”

“Every time,” Lucretia muttered, though a smile tugged at her lips.

“Yeah, you’d think you’d stop setting me up at some point.” Lup pointed at the campfire and lit it.

“You just seem so happy every time I let you do it, though, I’d hate to take that away.” Lucretia smiled, and Lup grinned back.

Travel rations weren’t the most exciting of dinners, but Lucretia was hungry enough she didn’t feel like complaining. She ate with her journal already on her lap, writing by firelight and occasionally brushing crumbs off of it. At first she’d been almost obsessive about keeping her chronicles neat and professional, but by now she’d stopped trying. Half of her journals had doodles or notes in the margin from the other crewmembers anyway, a few crumbs weren’t going to make a difference - though something unpleasant in the back of her mind sneered at her about it even as she worked.

She was just writing about the strange noise that had drawn Lup away when Lup’s voice broke into her thoughts. “So, what’s today’s entry about?”

“It’s not much of one,” Lucretia admitted. “I don’t have all that much to tell today.”

“Not even what happened when I left you?”

She went still for an instant, then shook her head. “That’s not important, Lup-”

“Really? Come on, Lucy, you’re terrible at lying to me. What was it?” Lup crossed her arms. “Because I know I saw something weird, and maybe I didn’t get a great look at _it_ but I _did_ get a good look at you, and you were pretty damn upset.”

“It’s stupid, I don’t-”

“Lucretia.” Lup crossed her arms. “I can pry information out of _Taako_ , do you really think I’m gonna let you off the hook?”

“...you make a good point.” Lucretia drew her knees up, resting her arms across them. “...fine. Fine, if you want to know so badly - I saw you. I mean, I was following because I thought I saw the others, I thought  maybe someone came looking for us, but - then you were there.”

“Okay?” Lup prompted, scooting around the fire to sit next to her. Lucretia didn’t protest.

“I thought it _was_ you, at first, but it - it was so angry at me. It was telling me all these things, and it just - it was awful.” Her voice was small.

“What do you mean, things? What was it saying to you?” Lup’s voice had taken on an edge.

“Just - true things. I can’t protect myself, I have to hide behind all of you, I mean, my job is just the chronicler. The finest minds and the most skilled individuals the IPRE could find, but my work is just - writing things down. I-I mean, if the mission had gone like it was supposed to, fine, that’s important, but this - who’s ever going to read it? What would it matter if I stopped? If I wasn’t even here? You all do such important things, and I’m just - you don’t need me, I don’t know why-”She stopped, not of her own accord, but because her face was suddenly pressed into Lup’s shoulder as Lup hugged her tight.

“Well that’s just bullshit, of course we need you, but also who gives a shit? You’re our friend, we’re not about to ditch you because you’re better at writing your journals than shooting fireballs. I mean, we can’t do what you do.”

“But there’s no point to it-”

“Okay, but, counterpoint: who cares? Just because you don’t have the IPRE right now to give all those notes to, doesn’t mean you’ll never have someone who needs to read them, and we’ll be glad you never put down the pen then. And even if nobody but us ever reads them, even if we lost all of them - you’re important, Luc. You’re important to _us_ . We keep you safe because we _love_ you, not because you have to be useful. Which, by the way, you are, but that’s not the point. Shitty knockoff Lup can bite me, she’s wrong and we do need you. Okay?”

Lucretia swallowed the lump in her throat. “...Okay,” she said softly. “Thanks, Lup.”

“Good.” Lup kissed her forehead. “Now, we’re sharing your sleeping bag because I’m not letting go of you until we have to get up.”

That startled a laugh out of her. “Very funny.”

“Who’s joking? Move.” Lup nudged her towards the bag and Lucretia stared at her for a minute. Lup was already taking off her boots to slide in, and finally Lucretia followed suit. Awkwardly sliding in, she felt Lup’s arm curl around her and draw her in close. She leaned against Lup’s warmth, relaxing, and looked up to see Lup gazing down at her with a smile. Bending down, she pressed another kiss to Lucretia’s hair.

“When we get home, we’ve got to talk. Okay?”

Lucretia’s heart fluttered. “Okay.” Lup nodded, shifting a little deeper into the bag and settling again.

“Comfy?”

“Yeah.” Very.

“Good. Go to sleep, your human body needs it.”

“I have _seen_ you sleep on every piece of furniture on the Starblaster,” Lucretia murmured sleepily, but she closed her eyes anyway.

“Yeah, but I don’t _need_ need it, so, checkmate.”

Lucretia shook her head slightly, but she was too comfortable and warm to stay awake. Instead she let her head rest against Lup’s shoulder and drifted off.

When she woke up, she was wrapped in both Lup’s arms, and it took her a dizzying moment to remember why. Lup was sound asleep, and Lucretia glanced up and laughed to herself. She managed to wiggle out of Lup’s hold, if reluctantly, and unzipped the sleeping bag to free herself. Lup stirred, and by the time she was sitting up and rubbing her eyes Lucretia had gotten out their breakfasts and nearly finished her own.

“You’re an angel, Lucy,” Lup mumbled through a mouthful, as Lucretia adjusted her hair.

“So I’ve been told.” She glanced over as movement caught her eye. “Did you see that?”

Lup followed her gaze and frowned. “I saw _something._ ” She got to her feet, stretching luxuriously. “Better go check it out. Come on.” She beckoned.

“What, both of us?” Lucretia put out the fire, hurriedly gathering up her things.

“Well, last time I left you alone I came back and you were crying and miserable, so, not doing that again. Let’s go.” She came over and took Lucretia’s arm as the protective dome flickered out of existence. Lucretia blinked, then smiled and nodded.

“Okay, okay. I’m coming.” She fell in beside Lup, playing with her arcane focus in one hand. Lup glanced over and smiled.

“Not so much a wand person, are you?”

“I like staffs, actually,” Lucretia remarked. “But they seem a little unwieldy.”

“I think you could make it work,” Lup said thoughtfully. That got another smile out of Lucretia, and they both went companionably quiet as they went deeper into the woods.

The trees opened up into a clearing, with a large stump at one end. Sitting on it was the illusion of Lup, watching, waiting. As they stepped into the clearing, she smirked and rose to her feet. Lucretia tensed, clenching her fists.

A fireball exploded and incinerated the illusory Lup. Lucretia shielded her eyes, and when she lowered her hand there was nothing but some smoldering brush where it had been. She looked over at Lup, who was putting out the small fires before they spread.

Lup glanced over. “Sorry, were you hoping for some big dramatic confrontation? I figured that thing burned through its one free ‘make Lucretia feel like shit’ for its entire existence. Did you want to tell it it was full of shit?”

Lucretia blinked. “Uh...actually, no. No, blowing it up is fine with me.”

“Good.” Lup nodded, satisfied. Then she looked back at the scorch marks. “It went down easier than I thought it would,” she remarked thoughtfully.

Lucretia nodded. “Yeah, that is weird.” She looked around, wondering vaguely if it might have been a trap. Then she stopped. “Hey, there were trees there before.” She pointed to what looked like a deer track. Then she and Lup glanced at each other and followed it.

They felt the pull at the same time and broke into a run. Down a small, gentle incline, surrounded by thick, lush greenery, the Light of Creation lay on the ground. Lucretia darted down the hill and scooped it up.

“We got it!” She spun around to beam at Lup as she followed her down.

“Booyah.” Lup held up her hand for a high-five. “Team Competent Women wins again, I can’t wait to rub the boys’ faces in this one.”

Lucretia laughed, shifting her grip on the Light of Creation to oblige. “That’ll be fun.”

Wrapping an arm around Lucretia’s shoulders, Lup gave her a squeeze, then took her free hand and started to lead the way. Beaming, Lucretia followed, lacing their fingers together, and the two of them traded smiles as they made their way home.


End file.
